Alas, when I checked in with Naval
Base Kitsap-Bremerton officials Wednesday morning, the massive ship
was already moving out into Sinclair Inlet.

I pedaled down to Bachmann Park in
Manette for a view of the 1,100 foot-long
carrier, a major muscle in our country’s permanent military
force, and its 3,000-strong crew. The ship is headed out for sea
trials.

Later, I headed up to East 30th
Street, as the Nimitz passed through Rich Passage and into the
wider Puget Sound.

Did you get photos? Send them to me
at josh.farley@kitsapsun.com and I will upload them
here.

Jessica Perkins got these shots
of the Nimitz as it departed Rich Passage.Photo by Jessica
Perkins.A couple of great shots by Matt
King of the Nimitz with Seattle as the backdrop.Photo by Matt
King.Passing by Bremerton. Photo by
Leslie Peterson.Photos from Manchester by
Barbara DaZelle.Photo by Barbara
DaZelle.

At first, I naively thought I just
had a staunchly patriotic neighbor, whose alarm clock
would play the National Anthem each morning at 8
a.m. It was 2007 and we had just moved to Winfield
Avenue in Manette. What I didn’t know was that music was coming
across the Port Washington Narrows from the Puget Sound Naval
Shipyard, which plays it each and every day.

And Bremerton residents know that isn’t the only song
played for all the town to hear.

“Evening Colors,”
also known as “Retreat,” “Day is Done” or “Tattoo,” is played year
round as well but not at the same time, according to Shipyard
Historian Cristy Gallardo.

“Everyday it’s sounded at the
official sundown time, so it changes by a few minutes throughout
the year,” Gallardo told me.

She points out the evening tune is not “Taps,” which
now is mostly limited to military funerals and memorials.

As you might’ve guessed, the songs are programmed to
play automatically through the Shipyard’s “Port Operations” post.
It “doesn’t require human interaction at all,” she
said. “It just does its thing.”

How far back this tradition goes is uncertain.
Gallardo told me it’s been the practice at military installations
since before the Civil War. She suspects that the Marines, who
actually arrived before the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard opened in
1891, probably even started something given their devotion to
tradition and propensity to carry a bugler.

There’s no plans to discontinue this time-honored
practice, she added. Just think, if we were near an Army post, we
might hear “Reveille” every
morning instead.

At least, it’s starting to feel like that. The mothball fleet —
short for Puget Sound Naval Shipyard’s inactive ship
maintenance facility — is indeed getting smaller. The Connie
already left and the Independence will leave later this year.

I interviewed Amanda Jean, a lifelong Bremerton resident, about
what the mothball fleet means to her, as a civilian. She told
me:

“Mothball fleet means home. Bremerton is known for
our shipyard — you see those carriers and you know you’re here.
That’s what this town is all about.”

We’ll just have to get used to a few less carriers
for awhile. The USS Enterprise isn’t due to arrive until at least
2018.

Here’s a few photos of the Ranger’s
departure.

Jack C. Harpel watched it leave
from the pier Thursday. Great shot!John Moore, a retired Navy
captain who served aboard the USS Ranger in the 1960s, took this
great shot from Annapolis.Coming into Sinclair
Inlet.Passing Bachmann Park in
Manette.Another stellar shot by Patrick
Kerber as the Ranger enters Rich Passage.

Right around high tide today — as these things often
happen — the USS Nimitz supercarrier arrived in Bremerton’s
Sinclair Inlet.

There, she’ll spend the next 16 months getting maintenance at
the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard. The Nimitz is no stranger to
overhauls, nor is she a spring chicken. The carrier was
commissioned in 1972, I’m told. It took the nuclear vessel a
little longer than expected to get here, too, but here, she
is.

I snapped a few pictures at city hall, atop the Norm Dicks
Government Center, this morning. If you’d like to add a photo to
this gallery of its arrival, ship me a note at
jfarley@kitsapsun.com.

Reporter Tristan Baurick
snapped this shot from the south end of Bainbridge as the Nimitz
approached.Patrick Kerber took this great
shot from South Kitsap, as the Nimitz rolled by some waterfront
homes.Here’s another shot of mine, as
the Nimitz goes past the “Building on a Proud Tradition”
building.Bobby Davis was on the ferry as
the Nimitz rumbled by.Connie Haworth took this photo
from Bay Street in Port Orchard.One last shot of mine of the
crane and the vessel.

Were you among the droves of onlookers that bid the USS
Constellation farewell in Bremerton on Friday?

I know I was. I asked some polite folks at city hall if I could
come to the top of the Norm Dicks Government Center and take her
picture as the 61,000 ton vessel departed.

I got a lot of photos on Facebook, which I’ve displayed below.
Me and my partner in crime, Ed Friedrich (the military and
transportation reporter here at the Sun) will keep an eye on her
journey around the tip of South America to the scrapyards of
Brownsville, Texas. Ed will keep us posted on the largest ship
recycling in U.S. history as well.

So far, she’s traveling past Oregon, near Coos Bay, according to
marinetraffic.com. (To find her, you must find the Corbin Foss, her
tugboat escort.)

Feel free to drop me a line if you caught Connie slipping out of
Puget Sound, or further along the journey.